Bay Area Elected Officials, Public Safety Officers, Transportation and Transit Advocates Kick Off Signature Gathering Drive for Statewide Ballot Measure to Stop State Raids of Local Government and Transportation Funds

Supporters Say November 2010 Ballot Measure is Needed to Protect Funding for Public Safety, Emergency Response, Parks, Transportation and Transit Projects and other Vital Local Services.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  January 11, 2010

Foster City, CA – More than 30 local government, transportation, business, public safety, labor and public transit leaders rallied today in Foster City to protest a proposed $1.5 billion dollar raid of transportation and transit funding and to kick off a statewide signature-gathering campaign to qualify the Local Taxpayer, Public Safety and Transportation Protection Act of 2010 (AG Initiative #: 09-0063) for the November 2010 ballot.

The measure closes loopholes to prevent the State from taking, diverting or borrowing local government, transportation, and public transit funds.  

Californians to Protect Local Taxpayers and Vital Services, the coalition sponsoring the ballot measure, will collect more than 1.1 million signatures to ensure it meets the required 694,354 valid signatures needed to qualify a constitutional amendment for the statewide ballot.  

Today’s kick off event in Foster City is one of many similar rallies held statewide last week and this week. Hundreds of local government, public safety, business, and labor leaders have signed up to assist in a massive volunteer signature gathering effort.

“Sacramento politicians can’t continue to use local funds as a backfill for state budget deficits,” said Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate. “Voters have made it clear they want local government funds to be spent on locally delivered services, yet Sacramento keeps digging its hands in our pockets. The resulting trickle-down effect makes it impossible for us to do our budgets and puts at risk the critical services our residents depend on like public safety and transportation improvements.  We need this ballot measure so we can put a stop to State raids and borrowing of local taxpayer dollars and to protect vital local services.”

Gas taxes paid at the pump are supposed to be dedicated to transportation and transit improvement projects like road safety repairs, congestion relief, and maintaining and expanding mass transit.  Despite this, in the past few years alone the State has raided billions of dollars in public transit funding, and the newest state budget proposal released Friday contains a complicated tax swap scheme which will raid $1.5 billion in transportation and transit funding.

“California voters have repeatedly supported statewide measures that dedicate the gas taxes we pay at the pump for transportation and transit projects,” said Jim Gleich, Deputy General Manager, AC Transit and California Transit Association Executive Committee member. “Despite this, year after year the Legislature exploits every loophole it can find to borrow or raid these critical funds.  Sometimes the theft of these resources is done knowing it’s against the law, but since there’s no punishment, the shell game in Sacramento continues. This measure will once and for all protect gas taxes from future raids and insure they are used to improve our roads, highways, buses, shuttles and commuter rail systems – just as the voters intended.”

In prior elections, California voters passed measures to restrict state raids of local government funds, as well as to dedicate gasoline taxes to transportation and public transit improvements and services. Despite this, State elected officials have exploited loopholes in the law and used legally questionable tactics to borrow and raid more than $5 billion in local government, transit and redevelopment funds this year alone, and billions more in past years. Coupled with the downturn in the economy and falling local government revenues, state raids and borrowing of local funds are contributing to severe cutbacks in local police and fire services, parks, libraries, street and road repair, public transit and other local services.

Cities from San Francisco to Gilroy have taken drastic measures to balance their budgets. Some examples:
•    Brisbane eliminated two police officers, two maintenance workers and three firefighters.
•    San Carlos implemented a workforce reduction that includes seven police officers and ten miscellaneous full-time employees, cut numerous programs and maintenance of parks, deferred capital needs and made cuts to special needs programs.
•    Campbell eliminated programs such as  proactive parole and probation services and youth drug and violence prevention services
•    Gilroy, which has laid off four firefighters, eliminated 11 positions in the police department – six were sworn officers – eliminated 48 positions city-wide in 2009 and 23 positions in 2008, and has had to reduce its general fund expenditures by nearly $8 million.
 

If passed, the Local Taxpayer, Public Safety, and Transportation Act of 2010 would:
•    Prohibit the state from borrowing local government property tax funds which are vital for public safety and other local services.
•    Prohibit the state from borrowing or taking gasoline taxes which are dedicated to transportation and transit improvements and services, including the state sales tax on gasoline (Prop. 42 funds), and the Highway User Tax on gasoline (HUTA).
•    Prevent the taking of locally levied taxes, including parcel taxes, sales taxes, and other locally imposed taxes that are currently dedicated to cities, counties and special districts.
•    Prohibit the state from taking, borrowing or redirecting existing funding for public transit, including existing taxes on gas and “spillover” funds dedicated to the Public Transportation Account.
•    Add additional constitutional protections to prevent the state from raiding redevelopment funds or shifting redevelopment funds to other state purposes.

Cities, counties and special districts provide the vast majority of law enforcement, fire protection, emergency response and public safety services in California. In fact, on average, 65% of city discretionary budgets go to fund police and fire programs and services and more than half of county discretionary budgets go to fund law enforcement, emergency medical and public health programs and services.

“Across the state, police and fire personnel have taken huge hits due to budget cuts such as the ability to upgrade equipment as needed, brown outs, closed fire stations and reduced staff,” said Belmont/San Carlos Fire Chief Doug Fry. “More raids from Sacramento could mean longer response times, fewer officers on the streets, and many other cuts that I don’t even want to think about. We need to get this measure on the ballot and pass it in November. Right now our destiny is in the hands of Sacramento politicians. We need to sever those ties and make sure Sacramento is not stealing money that doesn’t belong to them.”

League of California Cities Second Vice President and Mountain View Councilmember Mike Kasperzak concluded:  “We’re confident that Californians will approve this measure to protect local taxpayer funds and transportation services from continued state raids. We encourage all voters to seek out the petition and sign it to place this important measure on the ballot.”